2004 Bond, Melbury, Napa Valley 1×1.5L

Vinous 92

The 2004 Melbury is the most virile, brooding wine in this flight up until this point. Broad but also a bit rough around the edges, the 2004 is texturally lacking some of the finesse found in most other vintages. It will drink well for another 10-15 years, but I don’t ever see it being especially refined. [Antonio Galloni, 11/01/2017]

Anticipated maturity: 2017-2027

Robert Parker 96

The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Melbury comes from Pritchard Hill and is aged 22 months in 100% new French oak. (About 600-700 cases of each of these wines are produced.) The 2004 Melbury is showing even better than it was early on. It is very open-knit for a Bond wine at age ten and that’s a good thing, since we all want to drink these wines in our lifetime. This comes across as a Napa version of the famed Pauillac Pontet-Canet, with terrific licorice, cedarwood, blackberry, creme de cassis, toast, spice box and lead pencil notes in the aromatics and flavors of this drinkable, full-bodied, opulent wine that is strutting its stuff splendidly. It should drink well for another 15 or more years given its sensational richness and overall equilibrium. A brilliant project of Harlan Estates’ proprietor, Bill Harlan, these single-vineyard wines have been everything a Cabernet connoisseur could ever hope for since they were first released. Amazingly, these wines taste better with age than they did young, which is exactly what Harlan and his winemaking team of Bob Levy and consulting oenologist Michel Rolland are trying to prove. Tel. (707) 944-9445 [Robert M. Parker, Jr., 30/04/2014]

Anticipated maturity: 2014-2029